The person that is 'shorthanding' usually types messages with many fragments and errors, and no punctuation either.

Idiot: hey guyz wat up
Smart Person: Nothing much, you?
Idiot: lolZ, i wsa jus t @ my cuzzins house
Smart Person: Cool, what did you do there?
Idiot: we playd some halo, den we went outsid 2 plya sum basket ball
Idiot: we had a lto of fnu
Smart Person: I have no idea what you just said, please stop shorthanding.
Idiot: lolZ @ dat!
Idiot: no wya!!
-Note: This took me around 10 minutes to write.-

1. Used by literate writers in the real world for note taking, mostly at school or college. Usually just abbreviated forms of words, they also can use symbols or different pieces of text that symbolize longer parts of text. Usually shorthand is easier to be read by the writer, for all shorthand is unique to its user. Some abbreviate different things.

2. Used by illiterate noobs online. they speak with no grammar, and make no sense. They cannot seem to spell, and seem to randomly press keys.

A style of typing that noobs need to stop doing because it's driving people mad with their insensitivity of using poor spelling. It's useful in school and college to get notes down faster, but a major cause for murder when used to talk to people on the internet. The people that usually use shorthand on the internet like AIM, MSN or whatever are usually people that don't know how to fucking spell or write clear sentences. It's rare if these people DO know how to spell. Also, it's fucking annoying having to squint at the computer screen trying to make sense of something that looks scrunched together or looks like it came from another planet. The English language is the 2nd most used language in the word. Please, noobs, try not to fuck it up with your annoying use of shorthand. It's driving the world insane.